How to Spend a Day in Berlin

What I did with 24 hours to explore Germany’s capital

Welcome sign at Berlin Tegel Airport

Last summer I had the amazing opportunity to travel around Europe for 3 weeks all on my own. I visited 5 countries while I was there and had such a thrilling, eye-opening adventure, apart from getting what felt like pneumonia for 2 days in Italy. One of the many highlights of the trip was visiting Berlin, although because of a scheduling mishap last second involving a concert in Paris, I only ended up with 1 full day to explore the city. However, for having such a limited time and a low budget, I managed to see a remarkable amount of the city, and the challenge was even a bit fun.

Berlin has one of the richest, most-volatile modern histories of any European capital. A place of both extreme dissent and profound unification, the city’s reputation cannot prepare you for all the landmarks you will encounter. There is a weight to the air in Berlin. You walk around with the knowledge that what happened where you are standing affected world history, and it makes you appreciate the city all the more.

You cannot possibly acquire the entire picture of the city in such a short amount of time, but you can see a surprisingly satisfying amount, so here is what I suggest you do with only a day to experience Berlin…

Humboldt University

Because there is a nice cluster of sights within walking distance of each other in the central Mitte district of the city, this is a great place to begin! I actually started at this locale because I was interested in attending the school, but even though those hopes have been dashed, it is still a beautiful campus worth seeing. On the day I visited, there was a cute book fair happening, and the campus was buzzing with students. I believe it was a Tuesday. You might not enjoy exploring it as extensively as I did, but I recommend ambling around the courtyard and at least walking down a hallway or two. The area surrounding it has some interesting buildings as well and will give you a distinctly Berlin vibe to start off your day.

Berlin Cathedral

A short walk from Humboldt University over a branch of the river is Berlin Cathedral, which sits on Museum Island. Now affiliated with the United Protestant denomination, the church was consecrated in 1454 as Roman Catholic and has a long tumultuous history of reconstruction and changing hands. The current building was completed in just 1905 and at the time, was considered a Protestant response to the scale of St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City.

The exterior is stunning, as well as the interior. I am usually opposed to paying to enter a church. I feel like God would disagree with that, but this is one for which I had to make an exception. It was affordable, and either way, you’re supporting preservation. The inside of the Berlin Cathedral can not be described. Photos similarly cannot possible capture the radiance and scale of it. This cathedral is undoubtedly in the top 3 places of worship I have ever had the honor of visiting. If you only take my advice about one sight on this list, please make it this one.

A perk of visiting the inside of the cathedral is included access to the rooftop. Besides the mind-blowing interior, the views from the roof are similarly stunning. If you are willing to make the 270 step journey, you will enjoy a 360° view of Berlin right along the River Spree. Plus, along the way you will get an intimate look at the construction of the building. Furthermore, inside the church is a small exhibit of its history and a vast mausoleum located downstairs.

View of Alte Nationalgalerie and River Spree from rooftop

Altes Museum

Museum Island

Altes Museum

In the same square as Berlin Cathedral is the Altes Museum, the massive neoclassical building you probably noticed as soon as you walked into the Lustgarten park. Designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1999, like many of the structures surrounding it, the museum houses Berlin’s Collection of Classical Antiquities. Behind the Altes Museum is an art museum also built in the neoclassical style, the Alte Nationalgalerie. As the name suggests, it houses a portion of the Berlin National Gallery. Also placed in this block of buildings is the Neues Museum and the Pergamonmuseum. Amidst all these cultural fixtures is the serene Welterbestätte Museumsinsel courtyard. It is lush and green and filled with sculptures. It is a perfect place to wander around or have a little rest.

Admittedly, I did not end up going inside any of these museums, but I urge you visit at least one. I chose to move on quickly to cover as many sights as possible and ended up at Potsdamer Platz later in the day. Turns out, there is nothing to do there you cannot do somewhere else, and it’s not even a very attractive area. So I recommend taking the hour or two I spent trying to get to and from Potsdamer Platz to visit some of these incredible museums. Once I revisit, I definitely will not be making that mistake again since I missed out on so much art and history.

Alte Nationalgalerie

Columns surrounding the Welterbestätte Museumsinsel courtyard

Berliner Fernsehturm (Berlin Television Tower)

Alexanderplatz

Weltzeituhr (World Time Clock)

After Museum Island, Alexanderplatz is actually just a 12 minute walk away. The expansive public square is a popular shopping and tourist area and transportation center. You will pass the Berliner Fernsehturm, a famous television tower visible from most of the city, up close on the way to Alexanderplatz, and that will probably be satisfactory enough for that sight. It is not really a “visitable” attraction; it more just adds to the Berlin skyline.

Unless you want to enjoy a shopping mall or stop in Primark, the main attraction in the plaza is the World Clock sculpture. Perpetually rotating at a rate too slow for the naked eye, the massive rotunda displays all the time zones of the world, with 148 total cities labeled. It was designed by Erich John and opened in 1969 as part of a major expansion to Alexanderplatz. Since then it has become an integral landmark and meeting place for the city’s residents.

Oberbaum bridge

East Side Gallery (Portion of the Berlin Wall)

After Alexanderplatz, you can wrap up in Mitte and head over to the southeastern area of the city to see a famous portion of the Berlin Wall still standing, which has now been opened to mural artists and become a powerful symbol of peace. The remnants of the wall run over 1000 meters and feature over 100 artists. Whether you enjoy art, history, or both, this is an incredibly important landmark to visit.

You are bound to see the Oberbaum bridge if you walk the entire length of the wall either direction, but I wanted to point it out regardless because the architecture is brilliant and well-preserved. The bridge services pedestrians, cars, and a train line and also links two neighborhoods that were once separated by the Berlin Wall, becoming yet another symbol of peace in the city.

Graffiti art pieces along East Side Gallery

The piece to the left is perhaps the most famous mural on the wall. Considered iconic political satire, the painting by Dmitri Vrubel recreates a notorious photograph of a kiss between Leonid Brezhnev, a Soviet leader, and Erich Honecker, a German politician. Both men were Marxist-Leninist socialists, and the painting depicts them engaging in a “socialist fraternal kiss,” an odd, covert practice between socialist sympathizers to signify their “special connection.” The piece has been vandalized several times but has remained a staple of the Gallery since 1990.

Reichstag Building

Brandenburg Gate

After that sprawling portion of the Berlin Wall, head over to the Tiergarten district to see two more culturally significant sights. If you have time, take a stroll around the Tiergarten park, after which the area is named, and visit the famed Victory Column towards the center. Otherwise, you will want to visit the Reichstag Building first. It sits at the eastern end of the park, preceded by its own lawn known as the Platz der Republik. The heavily restored, 19th century property hosts the German parliament, and if you are interested, it is possible to visit the inside and walk high up around the glass dome. It was finished in 1999 and offers a 360° view of the city, à la the Berlin Cathedral’s dome.

Afterwards, walk about 6 minutes and you will arrive at the Brandenburg Gate. Built in the neoclassical style using 12 Doric columns and completed in 1791, the gate has been the setting of many major historical events, becoming a symbol of Germany’s difficult past. The gate has seen both the Nazi regime marching through it and the ceremony to reunify Germany decades later. It has welcomed everyone from Napoleon to Barack Obama. The monument is quite unassuming for something that has had such an incredible political history.

Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe

(colloquially, the Holocaust Memorial)

Just a block further south of the Brandenburg Gate is the Holocaust Memorial. Erected to remember the Jewish victims of the Holocaust, it consists of 2,711 concrete blocks of varying heights arranged along an undulating 4.7 acres. You are meant to walk throughout the grid as the slabs rise and fall around you. The sky shrinks as you get deeper into the complex, creating unease and a claustrophobic sensation. It is reminiscent of a graveyard, and the full weight of the tragic time period becomes very apparent. The installation is unusual in the realm of memorials because the number of slabs and dimensions thereof do not correlate with any Holocaust statistics, it only serves to honor the Jewish victims, and the victims’ names are not displayed prominently. The Memorial has been a source of controversy for those reasons, but nevertheless, it is an absolutely quintessential part of visiting Berlin.

Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church

Last stop on the list is the Kaiser Wilhem Memorial Church. The actual chapel is relatively new, finished in the 1960s, but the main sight is the large spire from the original 1890 structure still intact. The tower was all that survived after a bombing raid during World War II. The symbolic piece of architecture was kept as a memorial, and the new church was built and integrated around it.

I ended up at this monument at night for no reason other than it was in a different area of town than everything else and was the last place I managed to get to, but I actually recommend seeing it at night. Unless you enjoy luxury shopping, the area will not have much else for you in the daytime anyway. You can either start or end your day here, but with its spotlight illumination and its beautiful blue honeycomb stained glass walls, I think it is the perfect ending to a day in Berlin.

Of course there is way more to see, but I can only speak to what I could fit into my own time. I wanted to write about what someone should do with only a day in Berlin because that is exactly what I had. However, I guarantee you can cover a surprising amount of ground, both physically and culturally in just 24 hours. Hopefully, this travel guide will be useful to someone in the future. Thank you all for reading!